Richard Lainhart - Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival Lecture & Performance

Slideshow of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival (BEAF), Friday, May 6, 2:PM PST, 2011 (mentioned in this post). Below is a video of the Buchla and Haken Continuum portion of the lecture followed by a performance of Olivier Messiaen's Oraison written for the ondes Martenot at the 48:00 mark (see this post for the original version and this post for another performance by Richard). You will notice Richard makes references to earlier parts of the lecture. These included his training on the CEMS modular synthesizer system and the ondes Martenot (don't miss this post and this post on the CEMS). See the labels at the bottom of this post for more info on each. I will upload those videos at a later date. They were background to Richard's experience with early modular synthesizers and controllers that eventually lead him to the Buchla and Haken Continuum. It was a great lecture and I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to bookmark this one. I also want to thank Richard Lainhart for doing lectures like these. They are a rare treat.


YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on May 19, 2011

The following is a full transcript. BTW, if anyone is interested in transcription services, let me know.

"RICHARD LAINHART: BUCHLA AND HAKEN CONTINUUM LECTURE

Speaker: Richard Lainhart
Lecture Date: May 6, 2011
Lecture Time: 2:00 p.m. PST
Location: Western Washington University
Event: Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival 2011 (BEAF)
Length: Digital AVI recording; 57 minutes 32 seconds

[Beginning of recorded material]

Richard Lainhart: Okay. What I want to do now is actually talk a little bit about the system itself here and about the design of the system and explain what's actually happening here and why it's designed this way, and again, my focus on, on expression. So this is, as I mentioned, this is the Buchla 200E. This is a current electronic music instrument that is still being made now by Buchla. Don Buchla again was a contemporary, or is a contemporary of Bob Moog, and he took a very different path than Moog did. And one of the reasons I think that Moog's instruments became so popular, of course the Mini Moog was like the first real break-out electronic music synthesizer, was that Moog's instruments had keyboards on them. They had black and white keyboards. And you could use them to play, you could use them to play rock and roll with them basically because you could plug them into a really loud amplifier and it could be louder than a guitar. And it could be a bass, you know, it could be louder than a bass and all that sort of stuff. And of course a lot of, you know, a lot of wonderful music was made with that instrument.

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Roland Interview with the Developers of the Original JUPITER-8, JUNO-106, and JX-3P

The interview is currently on Roland's site here. The text is captured below for the archives.

"WHAT ARE YOUR HONEST OPINIONS REGARDING THE ROLAND BOUTIQUE SERIES? AS DEVELOPERS OF THE ORIGINAL PRODUCTS, WHAT WERE YOUR IMPRESSIONS WHEN YOU HEARD ABOUT THE MODERN RECREATIONS?

Takahashi:I'd heard about this product series rather early on thanks to my position at the company, and my honest feeling about it was that I was excited. I was truly excited at the prospect of a simulation being released of a product that I was involved with decades ago. Synthesizers from those days have a unique feel that you can only get on analog, so I was interested in seeing how much of that could be reproduced in the digital realm. I knew that the Roland Boutique series development team was working on this very seriously. More than being intrigued, I was truly very excited.

Matsui:I'm no longer with the company, so I hadn't heard about this until very recently when someone mentioned, "We're working on this project relating to the JX-3P." Honestly, I was very happy to hear that. I was very happy to hear that Roland will be releasing a product that I had a part in developing in the past in a new form. That's because the JX-3P was a very special product for me.

DO YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING MEMORIES RELATING TO THE JX-3P?

Matsui:That synth was developed at Roland's Matsumoto factory. I was working at Matsumoto at the time and was involved in guitar synth development. Guitar synths up to the GR-300 and GR-100 were based on converting pitch into a CV (Control Voltage) signal, which would then trigger an analog synth. But for the next generation of guitar synths, we decided to use a design where pitch would be converted to MIDI, which would then control the sound engine digitally (though the sound engine itself would still be analog). We studied how guitarists were using the GR-300 and GR-100 and realized that they didn't do much sound creation on their own. (Laughs.) So if that was the case, we decided to go with an easy-to-use synth with presets. And this was the start of the GR-700 project.

The [GR-700] would feature a built-in pitch-to-MIDI converter and a sound engine with presets. But even if this was to be a preset synth, it would still be too difficult to create sounds without any knob controls. So we made a programmer—solely for development purposes—with which we could adjust the tones. Sometime later in the development process, one of our superiors remarked, "You can attach a keyboard to that and make a polyphonic synth out of it, can't you?" [Laughs.] So that's how the JX-3P came about. The reason it's a six-voice polyphonic synth is because it started out as a sound engine for guitar synths, guitar being a six-string instrument. (Laughs.)

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Richard Lainhart: CEMS, Theremin, and Ondes Martenot Lecture, BEAF 2011

YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on Jun 1, 2011

First three parts of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival on Friday, May 6, 2011, 2PM PST. These cover the CEMS (Coordinated Electronic Music Studio - see the CEMS label below for more), theremin, and ondes Martenot. The audio on these are a little on the low side so remember to turn your speakers back down after listening. You can find a full transcript for each part below in case you can't quite make things out. You can catch Richard Lainhart's lecture on the Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum, followed by a performance, in this previous post.

Transcripts for the above three videos:

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Eurorack Modular Review by Hefix93 of Velvet Acid Christ

Hefix93 of Velvet Acid Christ sent the following review of his new Eurorack format modular synth featuring Doepfer, Plan b, Livewire and a Kenton Pro Solo for MIDI to CV. You will find samples at the end of the review.

"Kenton pro solo: Amazing midi to cv converter, its tight, real tight with logic sending it midi. i like the portamento and other things i can get out of it.. very good, worth every peny, also can do extra cv modulations with the aux out jack.

Plan b model 15 osc: The saw wav on this is simply mystifying. huh? i mean it is the meanest saw i have ever messed with. PWM is not so great, no attenuator and there is only active pulse on the pwm knob from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock (don't know if this is standard on all modulars, as this is my first) this really irritates me [Update: this is addressed at the end of this review by Peter Grenader of Plan b]. I got neat fm sounds, and sync. the sine is pretty cool. The small frequency knob really kinda irks me, its so hard to dial in any kind of tuning, which makes this a real bummer for live use. I hope i can get the pwm to work how i want in the future, if so, this osc will probably me favorite of all time. Seriously rips. This thing is so mean. I want to have him build me a custom osc based on this model 15 with all the things i want. i hope he will. I want a osc octave switch, pwm attenuator and a bigger freq knob that isn't so overly sensitive and hard to tune (granted, these are the first modular oscillators i have used so). I seriously love this osc.

doepfer a-118 Noise/random: wow, i love the colored noise on this module. and the random voltage thing is kinda neat as a modulator on my filter and other things. nice.

doepfer a-138 mixer: Wow this sounds decent. if you over drive this past 7, it gets pretty aggressive, great for the kind of music i do. nice..

doepfer a-131 VCA: Again decent sounding, and man if you go past 7, it gets real mean. i love it..

doepfer a-143 quad lfo: nice to have 4 lfos, i like the speed switch, this goes real slow and nice and fast. i love it. better than most synth lfos i've had. Can go real fast in the high mode, fm audio. nice...

doepfer a-125: this is the best phaser i've ever had, and i haven't had many, makes the phaser in the virus ti sound like a toy..can sound real thick and heavy, very psychedelic. wow. this will make my psy trance tracks kick major butt..

doepfer a-188-1 1024 bbd: Very cool short delay that does chorus and flange ok, not the best i've heard, the modcan sounds the best so far. but for strange detuned rubber band delay modulation sci fi weird stuff, this thing really rocks, but it makes me wish i had room for the 188-2 instead.. hrmm... still really good for the money.

doepfer a-140 adsr: Very snappy. i mean this thing handled my 160 bpm bass duties at 16th notes very well. better than most stuff i have owned. i have not tried to make kick drums yet or other percussion, so i don't know how well it does there. but for bass and leas, out standing fast poppy envs. i have not messed with the other speed settings other than the m. and that suits my needs so far. i got two of these. and man, i'm loving it.... so fast tho, they can pop, you have to mess with the attack and release a tad, but man. it snaps..

doepfer 1-180 multiples: what can i say, they split the multiply a signal by 3. awesome. does its job well. i get 1 in and 3 out x2 per module, i got 2 of these..

Livewire Frequensteiner multimode filter: i saved the best for last. what can i say, this thing is aggressive, and man, it is simply the best multimode filter i have ever owned. The low pass is very aggressive, as is the bandpass, and the highpass, but man, the high pass is the best on this filter. it hisses and bites and cuts in a mix so well, i cannot explain how much i love it. But honestly i really like all the filter modes a lot. if i push the audio input past 7 or 8, it over drives and gets really mean, i mean super pissed. AMAZING. This thing is worth every penny, i love the knobs, and the nice big frequency knob is much loved here. What other multimode filters have i owned? nordlead, jp8080, virus up to the ti, the jupiter 6, the andromeda. This thing is sick, i mean so great, i cannot rave bout it enough. This is now my favorite synth filter ever. Even beating out my love for the minimoog and jupiter 8 filters.. i'm just into that aggressive exciting sound this thing gives me.

I sold my roland jupiter 8 for this [posted here]: i am not looking back, i love that old vintage lush instruments. but i needed something with more balls and bite and aggression, i got it. What i am able to pull of with this is amazing seriously mean bass and leads, that cut on all frequencies of the spectrum. And all the strange ufo sci blips and beeps that modulars are know for as well. This doesn't sound vintage, it has its own new sound, its stable and alive, but very precise and tight. zippy, and responsive. so much more so than i am used to. the modulations in the andromeda were sluggish and oogy, this is lightning fast and responsive, just how i like it. I am so glad that i took this big step. Sure i have some issues with the implementations on the the plan b model 15 with its pwm strangeness, but other than that, i love it all. I took back my virus ti and vsynths because they just didn't cut into my analog drum machine and monosynth dominated mixes. This thing does. it can get in there with my sh2, and future retro revolution just fine. as to where my virus would sound all faint and wouldn't cut, even with the high pass, it would kinda get lost and not stand out. that is not a problem here with this system. This is why i love analog so much more in the kind of music i make, i need stuff that has presence in the mix. digital doesnt. ANALOG DOES!

Sure after it was all said and done, it cost me about $2750. I bought it all from Analogue Haven .. please if you do buy stuff because of these sound demos, tell them that you heard the clips from velvet acid christ and read this review. I want a hook up for getting him business. I'm addicted to this modular stuff, and i need all the help i can get now.. :) Shawn really is the one who help me build this system. He and i go way back. I'm so glad his store exists now. really helped me out here. i've been lusting after a fat system with a multimode filter for years. I FINALLY HAVE FOUND IT.. i'm so happy..

Oh and by the way, i made a bunch of quick sound demos of the this system doing the typical vac arp lines and basses. Feel free to check em out. I hope this gets you interested in modulars.. They are not just for strange blips and beeps, they can be great musical instruments as well. not just for the weird sci fi. take care.

bryan aka hexfix93 aka phuckhead aka disease factory....."

Samples:
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/model15frequensteinera-125vcp.mp3
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/model15frequensteiner2lp125vcp1881bbd.mp3
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/model15frequensteinerlp3.mp3
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/model15frequensteinerlp4.mp3
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/model15frequensteinerlp5.mp3
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/model15frequensteinerbp6.mp3
http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/model15frequensteinerhp7.mp3

Update via Peter Grenader of Plan b regarding PWM on the Plan b Model 15:"Morning...

The PWM construction is designed that way so that there are more possibilities for the VC input. I played around with this a lot while cooking the VCO, you're going to get some very interesting sounds when the manual offset is positioned to either the far left or right (either into the 'silent' zone) and a VC is applied to pull it back into audio that aren't availible otherwise. My PWM sound is unique, I wanted to keep it that way.

I think there is a misconception that by only having the square audible from 10 to 2 that you're loosing something. You're not - it's all there, it sweeps from full neg, through 0 to 100 duty cycle, then back from 100 to 0 to full positive. it just transverses that from the 10 o' clock pot setting to the 2 o clock pot setting. the balance of the pot regions, when the signal is zero is not wasted, it's there for VC possibilities.

If you own one of these, try it, you'll see what I'm speaking about. Move the pot to silence, apply and VC, then move the pot to so that the square isn't silent and apply the same VC. I didn't want to loose both effects.

hope this helps,

- P "

Interview with Hexfix93 of VAC

The following is an interview I just wrapped up with hexfix93 of Velvet Acid Christ. As you know, this site is about the gear, namely synths, and the gear that helps drive and enhance synths, but ultimately the focus is on synths.

I was chatting a bit with hexfix93 and asked him if he would be interested in a slightly different take on an interview, one focused on synths and their impact to his world. We all have our story regarding how our obsession with synths first started, how we see and approach synths and what they mean to us. I thought it would be interesting to hear his story. The following is the interview.

Before it begins, I want to thank hexfix93 for taking the time out for this. We all have a different approach and a different story when it comes to our synths. This is his. For more of his music check out VAC and don't miss Toxic Coma. Cheers, matrix.


1. What was your first synthesizer, how old were you when you picked it up, and why did you pick it up?

"It was some kind of old yamaha cheap thing. i got it for my atari st, so when i played games like leisure suit larry that the music wouldn't come from the wimpy fm built in sound, but a general midi synth instead. it really didn't sound all that great. i wasn’t really a keyboard player at this point.

The first synth i got as a keyboard player was a roland w30 sampler workstation. And we made like 3 records with that keyboard. i remember gary slaughter an x vac member, spilled orange vodka drink on it. and i had to take it apart and clean every part of it by hand slowly, it took weeks. it was a pure nightmare.

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MATRIXSYNTH Turns 7!!!

Today marks the seven year anniversary of MATRIXSYNTH! The original matrixsynth.com actually launched way back in October of 1997 as MATRIX SYNTH. I never took it down, BTW. Click here to see it in all it's old school glory. If you thought there was too much green on this site, just check that baby out. BTW, check out the manufacturers list under MFG. I stopped updating it about the time I started this site in 2005. You can see what modular manufactures, and of course others were around back then. It's an interesting look back in time... Kind of why I started this version of the site actually. I'll get to that further below.

Last year I skipped the site stats and kept the anniversary post relatively short. I used to post stats for the site and a general blurb on what makes the site tick, but it began to feel redundant so I skipped it last year. Well, I kind of missed it, and I know some of you enjoy the stats thing, so I'm bringing it back. And CatSynth did it for their six year anniversary post yesterday, so there you have it. Actually I was planning on including stats before I read that post, but I do like CatSynth. The site has grown quite a bit and we have a ton of new readers who don't really know the background of MATRIXSYNTH so I thought I would share some of that as well. I've also had a few people ask me to do personal interviews. I always turn them down as I do my best to keep myself out of the site so I don't ruin it for anyone. It's kind of like the whole Wizard of Oz thing. Enjoy the Oz in MATRIXYSNTH, and don't let the wizard ruin it for you is my only advice. That said, I decided this year to reveal a little more about my synth history than I normally do. Don't worry though after this post that's it. This site is about the gear only. I see it as my job to bring it to you unbiased and get the heck out of the way. Seriously though, I really do my best to present what is out there free of bias for you to consume and form your own opinion. I do this for three reasons; one, out of respect for the person that created the content, two, so I don't accidentally prevent you from getting your own experience out of the post, and three, because of how much goes up on a daily basis - it saves you and me time.

But, in the anniversary and New Years posts I do tend to make up for my lack of words big time, so bear with me or just skip to what you like.

Before I begin with the stats I do want to give a big thanks to everyone that visits, supports and contributes to the site. THANK YOU!!! It really is a tremendous amount of work, so all the kind words and support make a huge difference. Every single post you see here is hand posted. There is no automation. The site takes roughly four to eight hours on average a day (closer to eight) and sometimes up to ten hours. This is every single day, including weekends. Out of the seven years running the site I have only missed one day (by accident - more on that below), and the only day I take off is Christmas day when I put up only one post, which surprisingly can be torture in not posting. The posts you see here are a combination of stuff I find out there on my own and stuff people send in, which is quite a bit. The site started as a hobby and has fortunately grown into a small business with the help of sponsors. Note sponsors are always on the right. In the history of the site there has never been a paid post on the main site, and if there ever is, I will be sure to call it out in the post. That said, THANK YOU SPONSORS! It's one thing if the work only consumed my time, but it in turn consumes my family's time, so every little bit helps. THANK YOU! You make the site possible!


First the stats!

We still haven't reached world domination. Everything you see with a shade of green is a visit to the site. Check out Africa! The few in white mean no visit came in. The top map is for the seven year history of the site and the bottom is for this last year. Click on each for the full size shots. As you can see they are pretty much the same. Still no hits from North Korea.

On the other hand we had 122 visits from Syria within the last year along with traffic from other war torn countries. Incredible! Please keep safe out there! You are in our hearts, thoughts and prayers.

The top 10 visits by country:

1. United States 982,943
2. United Kingdom 258,070
3. Germany 183,138
4. France 168,649
5. Canada 142,553
6. Italy 109,605
7. Japan 84,202
8. Sweden 76,948
9. Australia 73,881
10. Netherlands 72,680

And the overall stats:

Source: Google Analytics for the year (July 20, 2011 - July 20, 2012):

6,364,538 pageviews
2,838,084 visits
972,065 unique visitors.

Source: Site Meter for the life of the site:

32,734,610 pageviews (18,557 average per day)
15,658,114 visits (7,822 average per day)

Google Analytics (started April 5, 2006):
30,795,628 pageviews
14,313,210 visits
4,258,879 unique visitors.

Note unique visitors can be a bit misleading as I believe it's based on the individual browser and cookies vs. IP Address or individual, so for people checking in on multiple devices and even multiple browsers on the same machine, each one counts as a unique visitor. The numbers are likely lower.

Unfortunately I do not see a top posts for the last year in Blogger so we will have to go with the top posts for all time:

New Schmidt Analog Synth Debuts at the Musikmesse
Apr 5, 2011, 22 comments 13,412 Pageviews

RIP Mr. Tsutomu Katoh - Founder of KORG
Mar 15, 2011, 6 comments 12,542 Pageviews

New Tom Oberheim SON OF 4 VOICE
Jan 25, 2011, 10 comments 7,811 Pageviews

M-Audio Venom Review and Interview with Product Manager Taiho Yamada
Mar 23, 2011, 6 comments 7,186 Pageviews

New KORG Monotribe In the Flesh
Apr 4, 2011, 26 comments 7,149 Pageviews

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Parallella: A Supercomputer For Everyone on Kickstarter

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-supercomputer-for-everyone
If the Kickstarter video causes your mouse to disappear, click off screen and it should come back.

Note the video and project is not directly focused on synthesis, however the application (like the iPad as a synthesis platform) should be obvious. The following is a write-up on that potential in via reader cheater:

"I'm in no way affiliated with those guys, but this thing opens so many possibilities for the synthesis aficionado that I have to let you know what's in store. Why is this cool? Simply put, it's a Kickstarter for an open platform which could enable synthesis methods that are currently not possible, unless you lug around an expensive workstation, and put them in a desktop-module style case. For those intents and purposes it's a self-contained system with a 45 GHz CPU, the size of a DVD box.

Below are some examples of synthesis methods that could work out thanks to the radically different way this thing works. Each of those is slow on current PCs and because of the parallel nature of the chip in question are tons faster to execute on it:

1. granular synthesis. Ever try to run one of those in VST? They sound better the more parts you can have. Current PCs can only run so many parts, and you need thousands per voice. This thing could easily run a polyphonic synthesizer.

Here are some demos of what you can do with a granular synthesizer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgcVr6lTzDs
http://www2.camelaudio.com/music/AlchemyAnalysisDemo02.mp3
http://www2.camelaudio.com/music/Alchemy-PresetDemo-JohnLehmkuhl.mp3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTODhn-UROc

See how Alchemy only allows 10 grains per voice? You could have an order of magnitude more, with each grain bank (Alchemy has 10) modulated separately.

More:

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Sequential OB-6 | Inside (ambient demo)

video upload by MIDERA

MIDERA OB-6 posts

"I have honestly stared at this synth more than any other synth for the last three years, online that is. I watched videos upon videos and thought "it sounds good... but what is it that people *love* about it?" I wasn't going to spend $2000+ on a synth without testing it. No, I only do that with everything else (like the Prophet 10 and Prophet 12). Ok, so I do do that.

I managed to play one locally. Twice. The desktop version. I walked away from my first experience thinking "Wow, their Virus TI2 sounds amazing." I own the TI1, so obviously I didn't need that. But the point was, I didn't really think the OB-6 was that great.

Then, I managed to go back, this time with my own headphones. My opinion didn't change. However, this time they had an Oberheim OB-Xa, which sounded incredible, I could hardly believe my ears. I left, again, disappointed by the OB-6.

Fast-forward, I was going to do a trade, my JX-3P + cash for a friend's OB-6 keyboard. Well, they took the JX-3P but needed the OB-6 for a show, so I let them bring that later. In the process, they decided not to keep the JX-3P, but did let me borrow their OB-6, for a few hours, just to sit and play, which was awfully kind of them. What you hear is my time with it. Or rather, the first half of that time with it. I knew nothing about it, but I *DID* tune it prior to starting recording - and it managed to get out of tune by the end.

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Replica Buchla 100 series modular synth: LA67 Mort’s Barge

video upload by Tom Churchill

"This video is about Mort’s Barge - a replica mini-system of five Buchla 100 series modules that were used by electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick in the mid-1960s. I recently built the 4U DIY modules from LA67, and in this video I walk through the features and create a few patches that show what they’re capable of.

My build notes are here:
https://www.modwiggler.com/forum/view...

Find out more about the Mort’s Barge DIY set on the LA67 website:
https://www.lasesentaysiete.com/mort-..."

You can find additional posts featuring Mort's Barge here.



Notes and pics via Tom Churchill's post on Mod Wiggler:

"I thought I’d share a couple of things I learned along the way which maybe aren’t immediately obvious from the BOMs alone, in case anyone else is planning to tackle the build and is looking for some tips.

Some of this stuff has no doubt been covered earlier in the thread, so apologies for any repetition. Also, a lot will probably be obvious to experienced builders, but I’m definitely not in that category yet, so for anyone else (like me) who’s only built Eurorack kits previously, maybe isn’t super-familiar with circuit theory and component sourcing, it might be useful.

Enclosure:
After I ordered the panels and PCBs from LA67 I contacted Julian at The Beast to ask about his 6U Buchla boats. As luck would have it he still had a couple of the special boats he supplied to LA67 for the pre-built Mort’s Barge systems, with matt black coating and pre-drilled holes for power inlet, power switch and grounding banana socket, so I snagged one.
I added some rubber feet to allow a bit of clearance for the screws I used to mount the PSU PCB (see below) and to avoid the underside getting scratched.
For mounting the modules, I bought a pack of 20 M3 speed fasteners (aka captive nuts, aka Tinnermans) from eBay, and secured the modules using M3 6mm screws with plastic washers.
Power:
The PSU PCB doesn’t require any caps and you just need to solder one bridge as marked. (This is now clear on the Mort’s Barge PSU BOM, but it wasn’t at first.)
I mounted the PSU PCB on 8mm M2.5 standoffs via the pre-drilled holes in the bottom of the boat.
I added a 2.1.mm DC inlet and wired a 20mm round rocker switch in series.
I added a single banana socket connected to 0V to provide a ground for any other cases I might want to use with it (and for connecting to Eurorack - see below).
For the AC-DC converter I just used a standard 12V 2A wall wart I had lying around, with a 2.1mm centre positive barrel connector.
I used the 2-pin Molex connectors as per the BOM to distribute power to the individual modules (with the power cables hard-wired to the individual module PCBs)
Component sourcing:
I combined the individual BOMs for the five modules into one master BOM, ticked off what I already had in stock (mostly resistors), then ordered any other required resistors, trimmers, pots, 2N3904/6 transistors and various bits of hardware from Tayda; caps, specialist transistors, diodes, switches, knobs, lamps etc from Mouser.
I’m in the UK and banana sockets worked out slightly cheaper from Thonk, so I ordered those there. I also bought the necessary matched transistor pairs from Thonk to save time (I don’t have the tools or experience to match them myself!)
Changes:
This might be sacrilege to Buchla purists but I went for Switchcraft 3.5mm sockets instead of Tini-Jax - I already have lots of 3.5mm patch cables and it makes for easier integration.
The 910p film caps on the BOM are huge - 10mm lead spacing - and expensive. I ordered them before I realised this, and with a bit of leg straightening/bending they do fit fine in the 158 and 180 boards, but I replaced them with these much smaller and cheaper 1n mylar film caps for the 140 - https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/1nf ... apacitor-5 - and they work just fine.
The BOM has since been corrected, but slightly annoyingly at the time I was ordering, the part code for the Dialight lamps in the 123 was out of date, so the ones that arrived in my original order were the wrong size. I had to do a separate order for the correct parts, 609-1122-130F. These aren’t cheap, so double check that you’re getting 9mm ones!
On the 158 BOM, there’s a suggestion to use 1n5 instead of 47n for C11 to reduce saw wave distortion. I put sockets in for that and tried both - the 1n5 definitely gives a much cleaner saw so I’ve stuck with that. I also left out C8 as suggested to improve sine shape - I didn’t try it with it included but the sine is definitely a good shape without so I’ll stick without it.
General tips:
I built them in the left to right order they’re shown on the LA67 photos - 158, 110, 180, 140, 123. It was pretty easy to test this way.
Calibration-wise there’s not much to do - the trimmers on the 158 adjust the sine shape and upper and lower frequency limits; use the 110 trimmers to minimise clicking with a raw trigger in; the 140 trimmers set the upper and lower period (I haven’t really touched these)
For the wiring, I soldered pins to the PCB and used a bunch of F-F Dupont jumper wires, cut in half, so if I ever need to take the board off I can simply pull these off and don’t need to desolder anything. For the multiple outputs I mostly just used old resistor legs to bridge them.
Integrating with Eurorack clock is easy - both the 180 and the 123 respond to triggers as low as 5V (e.g. from Pam’s). I don’t use a format jumbler, just a 3.5mm to two bananas cable, with the ground banana connected to the spare ground I fitted near the power switch. I don’t think I’ll ever bother trying to send CV from Eurorack but this way I can at least clock it to the rest of my system if I want to, and maybe even play around with some more complex rhythm patterns.
Anyway, hope that’s handy for someone - I’ll share a bunch of patches on YouTube soon!"

Roland System 8 Juno 60 Plug-out patches (demo)

video by MIDERA

"A selection of System 8 Juno 60 plug-out patches I created tonight. All internal FX.

So, why did I buy this synth? I don’t know. It wasn’t a great reason. I own a JX3P, and have been sick of trying to figure out how to hook it up with my gear. It only works via OMNI mode (listens to every midi channel). This forced me to use other sequencers that I didn’t want to use. I could upgrade to KIWI, but that would cost me well over half the cost of a S8, so I decided to try that. Good news is - they sound identical (except the JX3P PWM goes through zero and the S8 does not).

So, I had the Juno 106 plug out in it and found I didn’t like it. This is no surprise. I had a 106 and didn’t like it, back in 2012. Of course, I wish I hadn’t sold it, because I sold it for $350. Ouch. However, you have to remember back then there weren’t replacement chips, only the acetone fix, with reports that it didn’t always work. So I sold it. Anyway, I replaced it with the Juno 60 plug out and wow it sounds really good. Way better than the 106 plug out, which I thought was exceedingly boring.

Everyone talks about how great the System 8 and 106 plug out are, but I actually like the Jupiter 8 and JX Plug outs the most. The S8 is good too, but now that I have the J60 in there, I honestly think they’re all really good. I think maybe people are just so used to Juno’s that they just don’t explore the JX or Jupiter 8? I’m not sure. Or maybe it’s that people scan presets? I never use them. I start from scratch. Every preset in this thing just sounds too processed and I don’t like it.

Now I sorta wish I’d have picked up a J6 or J60, but the prices have skyrocketed so I guess so long and thanks for all the fish. I’ll keep this green hitchhiker from another sector of the galaxy. It’s ugly, but it’s like a towel - you may automatically assume that I am also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc."

Making the Andromeda A6

A great thread is up on the VSE Forums on the Alesis Andromeda. I know the threads expire there, so I'll grab some of the most interesting bits here. DB below is David Bryce who worked on the Andromeda. I remember when all of this was happening. Mike Peake was on sonic states the-gas-station and AH. The guys behind the Andromeda really loved synths and they respected the rest of us enough to frequently pulled us in for feedback on the design of the synth. It was as if they were one of us, and in reality they were and still are. Mike Peake stayed active in the synth community and as you can see from this thread, David Bryce is still very active. You have to love a company that does this. Great people make a great company. I personally think Alesis has been one of the better synth manufactures to date. The Andromeda, ION and Micron, and the Fusion have all been pretty amazing synths. The price points for what you get compared to what else is out there is astounding when you think about it. Do take the time to check them out. The Andromeda is a 16 voice analog with a huge modulation matrix, dual filters, built in step sequencer and much, much more. And it sounds pretty amazing imo. Whenever I think I've heard it all, someone makes a demo that showcases a completely new character of the synth. BTW, are there any other poly analogs with 16 or more voices other than of course the fully polyphonic boards using divide down technology?

Alesis A6 Andromeda, Now where did that come from? (title of VSE thread)
---------------
CTB wrote:
Our very own Dave Bryce, who sometimes posts here and works for DSI, was involved in the A6 project. Perhaps he would be the one to ask. Smile

DB:
Actually, we just got tired of people complaining that the QS synths had no resonant filters, so we decided to make something that did. Very Happy Cool

Making Andromeda was really the culmination of a dream for a bunch of us who had grown up with the older analog synths. We had spent years working on sample based stuff, and Erik and Rob Rampley got Alesis founder (and major engineer geek) Keith Barr drunk one night and talked him into letting us make an old school American power synth. Keith actually designed Andromeda's ASICs himself, if memory serves.

One of the back stories was that we were fought tooth and nail by Alesis' sales and marketing VP at the time, who thought we were out of our minds. He once told me we'd be lucky to sell 50 total units. Guess he may have been wrong. Shocked Idea

If anyone has any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer if I can remember. That was a while ago...

StepLogik wrote:
I'm shocked that the marketing group fought you

DB:
It wasn't the marketing group. I was the marketing manager of the synth division, and I was certainly behind it. It was the VP.

,
Quote:
seems like they would want to distinguish Alesis from the "workstation hell" of that era.

DB:
Not just workstations - it was VA synths, too. We figured making a Real Actual Analog synth would catch some people's attention (as Bitexion correctly surmised).

Plus, we were tired of hearing that we weren't a real synth company despite the fact that our ROMplers (especially the QS8) were outselling just about everything else at the time...but there were folks who kept telling us that ROMplers aren't real synths...so we made a real synth. Idea

That seemed to do the trick... Laughing

cbjlietuva wrote:
so maybe i can get my question amswered here:

does the Andromeda have Polyphonic Aftertouch?

DB:
The short answer would be no.

theglyph wrote:
Dave, the one major question I have had and the one thing which has kept me from pulling the trigger on an A6 purchase is what will the status of the A6's ASICs be in the future? CEMs and SSMs were used in several synths from many manufacturers so those chips were manufactured to some degree in surplus as we see today (although they ain't cheap Crying or Very sad). Did Alesis make sure that the IC manufacturer made enough chips to fulfill any future failures or is the well not so deep?

DB:
Alesis is the chip manufacturer...I mean, they don't own the foundry where the chips are physically made, but they do everything else. Consequently, there's no way we can know how many of them Alesis has made/wants to make...

...unless they want to tell us, of course... Wink

Soundwave wrote:
Few questions;

Is the A6 still in production and will it remain so for the foreseeable future?

Will the support continue for the machine i.e. OS updates/fixes?

Are the first, more expensive Alesis A6’s different in any way than the later Numark ones that are apparently now made in the far east as some claim the earlier Alesis ones sound better?

There are rumours that some of the people behind the A6 were also involved in the Xpander/Matrix12 is this true?

Will there ever be an analogue successor or derivative or the A6 as the VA market has kinda reached a standstill now?

DB:
I can only answer two of those questions becuase I haven't worked for Alesis for about seven years, so I have no idea what their current plans are.

Marcus Ryle, who founded Line 6, was one of the guys responsible for the XpanderMatrix 12. He and his team had a lot to do with a bunch of Alesis products including the ADAT and the QS synths...but they had nothing to do with Andromeda.

There are a few "rev 2" Andromedas that were only used during beta. They are slightly different from the production models, but the OS in them is different enough that you can't transfer programs between, them, so they can't really be directly compared....nor, if you could, is there actually any point in doing so. Howver, all the production models are (AFAIK) exactly the same...."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's it as of the time of this post. Check out the VSE thread for updates. I'll try to update this post with the historical bits so we don't lose them. Image via this post.

What Synths do We Own?

Update: People are still submitting their synth lists in the comments, so feel free to join. I added a permanent link to this post in the Poll section on the right of this site.

Dave of umop thought it might be fun to get a list of what synths the readers of Matixsynth represent. We could then see what synths are the most popular as far as ownership. That said, below is the poll. BE SURE TO SEE IF YOUR SYNTH IS LISTED before just adding it. As you know, posts only stay up for two days on the front page, so don't wait too long. If you have too many synths, just enter the top three for now and add more later if you like - this is meant to be fun, not work. I will add a link to the right after two days, but my guess is it will get forgotten, so... again, do it now. :) BTW, this is 100% anonymous so if you are worried about others knowing what you own, don't be. It will just be a list of synths and a count for each - zero mention of who voted for what. Also enter the Manufacture before the model so it will be sorted as such.

Hmm... Well that sucks. The Others are coming in as Other instead of the synth you enter. Hold off for now. I'll see if there is anything I can do.

Update: OK, I don't see an option to show the individual Other options in the actual poll results, but I can see them on my end. I'll update the post later with the results so far, so keep entering them.

Update: The poll was set to block repeat voters which is normal in a standard poll, so you couldn't enter more than one synth. I just updated it to let you enter multiple results.

Update: OK, it looks like this poll is a dud. I just checked the results in the admin interface and it doesn't give you total counts for individual synths. Instead it just gives you the count for Other. I'll put the list of about 100 results so far in the comments. Sorry about this everyone. Someone has offered to write up a poll the way I wanted it (where you get counts for each synth) in the next couple of weeks, so keep tuned. People are also writing their lists in the comments, so feel free to if you want to as well, but that won't give us total counts for each, which was the purpose of this poll. I thought it would be interesting to see the numbers and even rank the most to least owned synths.

Roland System-8 FM tones and melodies

video by MIDERA

"The first thing I did - wasn't this video. I first compared my JX3P to my System-8. I came to realize they are just so dissimilar. I can't tell if my JX3P is out of balance or the System 8 just doesn't do it justice, but anyway, I didn't like what I had done for a demo, so I dropped it and went to this, something I had been thinking about doing.

I spent the first few nights with the System 8 trying to see if it could replace my SY77. I learned very quickly that, no, it can't. The SY77 is the Prophet 5 of the FM world, in my opinion. Just super powerful, sounds beefy/sharp/thick, any of those adjectives. I just don't really get that feeling from the System 8. I think it's one of those things where it's a Jack of all trades, master of none. I haven't really been able to feel how the S8 will fit in to my studio/setup. Because of the first paragraph (comparison of JX3P and S8) I don't even think I could replace my JX3P either, so now I've got 3 devices where I previously had two.

I've stopped caring about how the S8 looks, and it DOES sound phenomenal, it just doesn't warrant me replacing anything else and that's a problem for me. It does have a ton of hands on controls, but I never feel like using them with FM anyway, so that doesn't really matter. Plus, the knobs just don't feel classy. But that's obviously a matter of taste. I have a lot to say on this matter - but honestly, I'll save that for the JX3P v S8 demo (that is, in no way, a very good demo/comparison).

So what do we have here? A bunch of FM-ish patches like pads and bells. So - hopefully you enjoy everything I did here. I messed up occasionally. Sorry about that.

Used Eventide Blackhole VST for reverb."

Roland Interview with the Developers of the Boutique Line of Synthesizers

The interview is currently on Roland's site here. The text is captured below for the archives.

"WHAT WAS THE STARTING POINT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROLAND BOUTIQUE SERIES?

Tojo:Our starting point was that we wanted to create a full-fledged synth in a compact form factor; something that might look like a gadget at first glance, but was capable of producing amazing sounds. We wanted to create a synth that people could casually enjoy, came with a built-in speaker, and could also run on batteries. Since we had the ACB (Analog Circuit Behavior) modeling technology that was developed for AIRA and a mini keyboard that was first incorporated in the JD-Xi, we thought that we could make something interesting by combining these two. That was around the end of last year, and actual development began in around January this year.

WERE YOU PLAYING WITH THE IDEA OF BASING THIS SERIES ON SYNTH CLASSICS RIGHT FROM THE OUTSET?

Tojo:Yes, we were. We wanted to combine ACB and the mini keyboard to reproduce classics that everyone was familiar with. The JUPITER-8 and JUNO-106 were candidates right from the start, since these synths are still very popular today. We wanted to add another synth to the lineup, so we decided to go with the JX-3P, which produces different types of sounds from either the JUPITER or JUNO. We reached the decision to go with these three synths rather quickly, without much debate.

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Exploring the Roland Jupiter 6

Exploring the Roland Jupiter 6 | What did I get myself into? video upload by MIDERA

"I spent too much money on this. I told myself I shouldn't get it. I knew I didn't need it. I knew it wouldn't add anything to my setup. I knew it would be a project... And yet, I bought it. The Jupiter 6.

The Jupiter 6 belonged to someone I know and have bought other things from. When we started our discussion, only 2 issues were known. The Master 2 knob and the ENV2 keytracking weren't working. I figured I could fix this. Then VCO MOD ENV-1 tracking wasn't working. Then, the unit wouldn't power on at all. They managed to get the power working again (the switch itself wasn't working). So I decided to go ahead with the purchase.

I drove an hour to pick it up.

I got it home and, yes, those issues persisted, but I tested it out and decided right then that this was indeed a mistake. My Prophet 10 is a better synth with less issues. Anyway, a few days passed and I decided it was time to open it up. I replaced the power switch. I tore out the 2 faders that weren't working. I cleaned them and fixed them. I cleaned out a few others that seemed to have intermittent issues.

All seemed well... until I made this video. It was at the very end of this video when I realized that Oscillator 2 has one voice that isn't working correctly. The Pulse wave is silent. Digging deeper into this, I've found that IC36C pins 4 and 5 are not receiving any voltage. This is voice C (or 3). Unfortunately, so far this is beyond my skillset to fix, but it seems something (hopefully common between these two pins, both related to Pulse wave and PWM) is not working. It's not a bad chip, because I swapped chips and the issue persists on the same location, i.e., it didn't follow the chip. One possibility is that this location is not soldered properly, and those two aren't receiving any information. I'm not sure. I'd have to delve deeper, but again, I'm just out of my depths here.

So what are my thoughts now? I'm frustrated that I put so much money into something that really needed more work than I originally thought... But then again, I've also learned a lot, like how to repair faders, how to do some basic IC chip testing.

I am shocked by people saying it's 'cold'. I don't know what that is about at all. Doesn't sound cold at all to me. It sounds like a proper Roland synth. But wow it has a ton of range. I didn't properly capture it here, but a few sounds I have made sounded like hitting a stringed instrument... it's like you can feel the electricity, where I don't often feel that way with the Prophet 10. It's really a great sounding synth. To me, it retains everything I liked about my Juno 6 and added a lot more. The only thing I really miss about the Juno 6 is the better feeling faders and the smoother cutoff when modulated.

All I can say is - I can't wait to have this thing back to 100%.

Happy New Year!"

Gary Numan's First Exposure To Synths & The Minimoog

via Under the Radar where you'll find the full interview.

"It was a very happy accident. I was in a band called Tubeway Army and we were a three-piece punk band. We went into a studio to make a record and we had three days to go and make it, which was the punk songs we were playing live. I went to the studio, never having seen a synthesizer before, and round the corner was a thing called a Minimoog which was quite a famous synthesizer. It was supposed to be collected by a hire company because somebody had rented it the day before and they’d forgotten about it. They never turned up so I started using it all day for this first day and I just loved it; I didn’t know much about them but I was having fun working it out and thought these amazing noises were coming out of this thing. I just thought it was the best thing I had ever heard.
I went to the record company and told them I’d found this synthesizer thing which was amazing and this was what I wanted to use for the future and so all those punk songs are going to be electronic punk songs, and I don’t want to be in a band anymore, I want to be a solo artist. I thought I had found something really special! The record company were really unhappy to be honest, they didn’t get it at all, they wanted a punk band and that’s it. Luckily for me they didn’t have any money so they couldn’t afford to send me back into the studio because I’d blown the budget. So they released it and it did a lot better than they expected, so they let me go back into the studio and make another album. So I went back into the studio and made another album. And then we had a single from this album that went to number one, so I went from having never seen a synthesizer before to becoming the ‘number one expert on synthesizers’ in the UK. I had a number one electronic album and people were talking about me being an electronic expert and all that, and I’d only spent about eight hours with a synthesizer because I couldn’t afford to buy one. I had the one that was left behind in the studio that first day, and we could only afford to rent one again for one more day when I made the second album, so I didn’t know much about it at all. In those early days people would ask me questions about synthesizers and programming and I didn’t know what they were talking about, and yet I was supposed to be a champion of this sound."

Sequential Circuits MultiTrak Battery Leak Fix

Update: The original site appears to be gone. The following is from the Internet Archives WayBackMachine. Unfortunately the additional images referred to further below are gone, however you can make out the mod (albeit blurry) to the left. Update: pics added below.

"SCI MultiTrak (Model 615) battery drain fix

So you found this page. Maybe intentionally, as you don't like the lifetime of your backup battery of your MultiTrak, or just by browsing. Anyway - if you have problems with your backup battery only keeping up power for several months, you may want to modify your synth a bit. I found this fix today, when i searched the last problem of my MultiTrak after the monster repair i initially did on this synth. After the repair, i had a temporary battery in it, a button cell 3V lithium battery. It took about 3 months to drain the power from this battery. Even after the second one, after 3 months, end of lifetime. So i purchased the large cell this synth usually needs, but as i didn't feel very comfortable with this very short lifetime, i didn't put it into the synth. Until today, where i wanted to track down this problem and find a solution, if there is any. And i did.

For i impatient and the ones not interested in the technical description of this problem, just the following show modification is needed to fix the problem.
Modifying the MultiTrak

In fact, my MultiTrak had a design bug, which lead to the short lifetime of the battery. If you want to fix this, disassemble your MultiTrak (i don't describe the procedure here, you can find out yourself or somewhere else i think), remove the keyboard cable and put the electronics assembly in front of you, with the connectors away from you. Remove the voice board (the upper board of the stack of 2 large boards) to reveal the CPU board. Near the keyboard connector, you see a large 40 pin chip, which is the keyboard processor, and right of the keyboard connector, you find a CD4022 (maybe it has other letters, but it must have the number 4022 on it). Left of this chip, there are 2 resistors of 10KOhms. The left one (more away from the 4022) is the one we neeed to touch. Desolder the pin of the left resistor which is nearer to you (goes to a thick trace, which connects it with its neighbour resistor), you can also cut it, but we need to connect it elsewhere, so be careful when cutting it. Next, isolate the board and maybe the neighbour resistor, that your modification can't touch something it shouldn't. Now connect the resistors open end to pin 16 of the 4022. That's it. Maybe you want to fix everything with some hot melt glue or another piece of isolation tape. Of just use a piece of wire stiff enough to keep everything in place.

Have a look at the photo (sorry, it is very blurred, i seem not to be capable to do those near-shots in a better quality :) to see how it has to look.

If you are not interested on what you did in detail, you are done now and may reassemble your MultiTrak. Otherwise, read on.
What happens in this modification?

If you want to know, you may want to first measure the current flowing through the battery. On my synth, it was around 200µA. After the modification, it is around 1µA:

So why that? Let's have a look at the schematics:

(Strange. This near shot worked...) You see the 4022 here. As you can see, it gets power from Vnv, the non-volatile power. Besides this, what you can't see here, the RST pin is pulled high by the same signal turning off the RAM access when the main power goes away. Read the datasheet. Pulling RST of the 4022 high sets CARRY and Q0 high. For Q0 this doesn't matter if you don't hit any keys on the keyboard. And even if you would, it should make no trouble, as the CARRY signal also doesn't leak to the keaboard scanner (partially left in the photo). But there is a completely different problem. The 10KOhms resistor used as pullup for the CARRY signal is connected to +5Vd, which is the main power for all other electronics. So you have a high signal on CARRY. A signal of maybe 2,5V. This goes over the resistor, at the other end (the +5Vd) around 0,5V are left from this power. Use your calculator - 2,5V - 0,5V = 2,0V. Using Ohm's law, R = U / I, you get I = U / R, 2,0V / 10KOhm = 0,2mA = 200µA. Quite a lot. If your battery has 1000mAh, you need 5000 hours to drain the battery. 24 Hours per day (assuming you don't turn it on all the time) = 208,3 days and your battery is gone. After the modification, the NV circuits draw 1µA from the battery according to my multimeter. That's 1 million hours then, which again is 41,7 years. No, don't think "i never have to replace this battery again" - lithium batteries have a lifetime of about 10 years, so it's not the synth drawing the power, it's the battery itself, which leads to you replacing the battery after some years again. Maybe 5, maybe 10 - but not one year, as it might be the case until now."

Update: pics via the comments, via Deep Signal Studios:

Acxel II

Remember the Technos Acxel Resynthesizer (pictured)? I just read this post on Music Thing. Apparently the creator of the Acxel, Pierre Guilmette, is working on a new version. Check out Music Thing for a letter from Pierre.

You can find his website, iDarca Audio here. You'll find a bit of info on resynthesis and some audio samples.

Update some more info on the Acxel:

"Don Garbutt writes: Freaky, obsure, expensive, unique, weighs a lot, robust construction (lots of VLSI chips inside). This machine is impossible to find, although I have one. Lucky me!!! Graphical interface is totally intuitive, and tell me if you know of any other machines that are resynthesis- based, as this is , if you care to use it in this fashion. Digital filter emulation (oscillator # filter) is unequaled.

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Intellijel Corgasmatron / MS-20 VCF comparison

YouTube Uploaded by s0LVentCIty on Jul 8, 2011

"Hello - my name is Solvent and this is my video comparison of the MS20's legendary VCF and Intellijel's new Corgasmatron eurorack VCF module, which is roughly based on the MS20's VCF. According to Mr Intellijel "Corgasmatron is inspired by the MS-20 but it is a totally different circuit".

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WASP SPECIAL SYNTHESISER SN 10015

Wasp Special Demo

YouTube Uploaded by 1224Johnmac on Feb 3, 2012

"Here's a little demo of my old Wasp Special vintage mono synth from the 1980's. I'm trying to use all of the knobs to show they are fully functioning. This is a rare model of Wasp with a real wood case. It is serial number 00015 which suggests it was one of the first built. I'm using a modified Epiphone Valve Junior amp to play it through. The sound is being picked up by the built in mic on the Vado camera I'm filming with so the sound reproduction isn't great. I hope you find the video useful. I will be parting company with the Wasp soon."


via this auction

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